


seven, eight, better stay up late

by GuardianKarenTerrier



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Halloween Gift Exchange, Horror, Humor, Nightmares, Podfic Welcome, Spooktacular Santa Halloween Fright Exchange, Teamwork, Trapped, lucid dreaming- kind of, nightmare akuma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2021-01-16 03:14:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21264146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuardianKarenTerrier/pseuds/GuardianKarenTerrier
Summary: Nightmare akuma like Sandboy are always difficult, but Ladybug's used to battling them with Chat Noir at her side by now.  She's never seen any of them start combining people's nightmares like this, though, and she'd wanted Viperion's help just in case they need the backup.Too bad when she returns with Sass, it's just in time to see Adrien and Luka targeted.It's just in time for her to dive after them, frantic to make sure they're okay.Now she has a problem- now the three of them are trapped in their own combined nightmare.And Marinette still needs to get Luka his Miraculous and to transform herself.That is proving to be a lot more difficult than she'd expected.





	1. nine, ten

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bluetreeleaves](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluetreeleaves/gifts).

> happy hallowe'en, bluetreeleaves! i'd intended this as a oneshot but life happened and it's gonna have another chapter now, haha 
> 
> title from a nightmare on elm street 3: dream warriors, a movie that a) partly inspired this and 2) i saw _way too young,_ thank you twins friends whose parents were absolutely never around but presumably existed

Marinette is really, really glad she'd already gotten the Snake Miraculous from Master Fu, because that means things aren't as bad as they could be, but she winces even as she thinks that. 

Thinking that things aren't as bad as they could be always, _always_ guarantees they're about to be worse.

And as it stands, _things are not great._

For some reason that Marinette can't fathom Adrien seems to think Luka already has the Snake Miraculous, even though Marinette knows damn well Ladybug hasn't had time to give it to him because Marinette had only just run back here from Master Fu's, because Marinette is a lot less likely to be tracked back there than Ladybug is.

And while she deeply appreciates Adrien's frankly heroic (and very endearing) attempts to find Luka enough privacy to transform, Marinette wants to scream because a) Luka doesn't _need_ to hide to transform, Adrien knows who Viperion is, b) so does Marinette but Adrien and Luka don't know that, and c) Luka doesn't _have_ his Miraculous anyway because it's still in Marinette's purse with her kwami.

And because nothing in her life can ever be anything but ridiculously convoluted (thank you, Tikki, for proving that it _is_ possible to get straightforward Lucky Charms but evidently only if you're _Chat Noir_), Marinette is currently trapped in some kind of hellhole haunted house with both the boys she likes and is going to combust if they get any more protective of each other. 

And of her, too, but weirdly- weirdly, they both seem more confident that Marinette can protect herself and possibly _them_ as well than they each seem to feel about each other. Marinette has no idea what _that's _about but it isn't great for her concentration.

She's pretty sure both that she's missed something here and that she can't possibly have missed something, she was _there_ when Adrien suggested Luka's Miraculous.

Marinette had known that Sandboy was a lot more powerful this time around. She'd _known_ that. Sandboy has shown up a few times now, and so have other akuma with similar powers, and she knows how dangerous the nightmare akuma are. That's the whole reason she'd gone to get the Snake Miraculous in the first place- Sandboy is targeting multiple people at once now, and _combining _their nightmares, and Marinette does not know which of the three of them this trap belongs to or if it's all of them combined but she does _not_ like it.

It's an old, rotting house, the size of the Agreste mansion but with boarded-over doors and windows and they've been searching for a way out for what feels like hours and there's nothing. The boards look rotten, like they _should_ be able to kick them down or shove them out, but they're immovable when the three of them take turns trying to do just that.

(Marinette has a sick feeling that she knows _exactly _whose nightmare left them with no exits. She's known since shortly after meeting him that Adrien chafes at his father's restrictions, that he wants to spend more time with his friends, but she doesn't want to think that he's _this_ scared of being trapped).

All three of them try to hit the front door running at once and it only leaves them in a crumpled heap on the floor. 

"That did not work," Adrien says, muffled, from the bottom of the pile as Marinette and Luka scramble off of him and Luka hauls Adrien and Marinette both to their feet. "That did not work even a little." He's got one hand cupped oddly at the side of his neck with a wince, and Marinette really hopes he isn't hurt.

Luka's gaze sweeps the entryway. They haven't tried, yet, to go all that much further into the house, because they'd been trapped together at the entrance and it had made sense to try and get out together there.

If they can just get back out, Marinette can find a way for them to separate long enough to transform. 

If she had just _waited_, trusted her head and not her heart the way she's supposed to, she would have been able to transform and likely get everyone to safety already.

Usually the one good thing about the Sandboy's new ability to combine nightmares would be that it leaves people caught together with allies. 

Luka and Adrien _probably_ would have been fine with each other's help, but Marinette had seen the akuma closing in on them both. She'd seen the house burst into existence around them, and she'd gone diving after them both because she couldn't _not_. She couldn't, she couldn't let them be trapped alone any more than she could have stood by and watched if it had been Chat Noir.

Where _is _her partner? She was so sure that he'd be waiting for her back at the battle- what if he's trapped, too? 

What if she's missed her chance to protect him like he protects her?

Marinette's own nightmares are- well. Not enjoyable, though she doesn't know how anyone's nightmares can be _enjoyable_, but she doesn't like thinking of losing her powers and that's by far the most common one. That's all the more terrifying because someday she _will_ lose her powers- she doesn't think that Ladybug is a lifetime position, unless it's because that lifetime is cut short, and that's another nightmare entirely because her _partner's _bad dreams are so often about different ways of losing _her_.

That leaves Ladybug with a terrible ache deep in her chest every time- he loves her, he loves her and she can't imagine a life without him in it, she doesn't ever _want_ to, and yet she can't love him _back _the way he deserves. Not when she loves someone else. Not when she loves him so differently from the way he loves her, not when it could never be fair to him.

Chat Noir's nightmares are frequently a lot worse than hers. They've both struggled through every terror the akuma have thrown at them- each other's battered and broken bodies, being forced to fight each other, one or both of them being akumatized, the loss of their kwami or losing to Hawkmoth; they've seen all of that.

(Previous akuma haven't combined their nightmares. Previous akuma haven't had to, and they likely wouldn't have noticed if they had).

And yet- and yet it always seems to hit Chat Noir a lot harder than it does her, and she's not quite sure why. He's definitely more susceptible to Sandboy's powers and Marinette does _not _like not knowing where he is.

-even if she does appreciate knowing where Adrien and Luka are. She'd rather Adrien was nowhere near here and that Luka was transformed, but since they _are_ here she's just glad they aren't alone.

So Marinette can't entirely regret diving after the boys (and Chat Noir will catch up to her somehow, of course he will), but she had not considered that getting trapped in a nightmare house with both Adrien and Luka is a bit much for her heart.

And, to her dismay, not _only_ for her heart. 

Evidently Luka doesn't see any other obvious exits from where they're standing, either, because he turns back to them both and reaches for Adrien. 

Marinette can't tell whether the emotion that rises in her at that is jealousy or not. She really doesn't want to try and determine what else it might be.

"Adrien, you need to _hide_," Luka says, both his hands on the other boy's shoulders as he shakes them gently. Moments later Luka glances apologetically at Marinette and adds, "We _all_ need to hide, we should get out of sight."

"The akuma _created_ the house," Marinette points out, her mouth running on autopilot while most of her attention span goes to Luka's hands on Adrien's shoulders. Adrien lost his overshirt somewhere before her own mad dash for the house, and his shirt is slipping under Luka's hands so that three of Luka's fingers are brushing his bared skin, and _there is an akuma and she really has to focus_. "I'm pretty sure he knows we're in here."

Adrien turns to answer her, which would be a relief if it didn't somehow end up pushing him _further_ into Luka's hands. 

That Luka's hands only tighten protectively on his shoulder instead of pulling away doesn't help. 

Marinette swiftly strangles any noise that wants to escape her at the adorably confused look Adrien is giving Luka.

"He doesn't know where we are in here, though." Adrien winces, still looking at Luka, and adds, "We should split up so that we're harder to find."

Luka shakes him slightly. Unfortunately that makes Adrien's shirt slip more, which does absolutely _nothing_ for Marinette's concentration. "Adrien, come on, have you ever _seen_ a horror movie?"

This time it's Marinette that Adrien exchanges glances with. "Um. No. Not really."

Marinette hasn't seen very many either, but she's sure that their reasons are very different. Marinette has seen just enough horror movies to know that she doesn't _like_ horror movies, that they leave her up the rest of the night trying very hard not to close her eyes and see her loved ones in the places of characters dead or maimed. She'd seen The Haunting _once_ when she was younger and has carefully tried to steer anyone staying the night into sharing a bed from the start ever since.

(Unless it's Chat Noir, but that's different. She isn't afraid of very much when he's with her).

Adrien, though- Marinette remembers Adrien and Nino showing up at Alya's late one night when everyone's parents were out of town, Nino grinning and out of breath as he told them that Adrien hadn't seen any of the animated Disney movies. Alya had lit up and yanked Adrien inside so fast that she'd actually locked Nino and Marinette out. 

Marinette_ vividly_ remembers the conversation she'd had with Nino, under the flickering lights of the only store they could find still open and near enough to Alya's, about how he keeps finding weird gaps in Adrien's experience and how so many of them are things that seem innocent until he thinks about them all together.

Nino doesn't think it's a coincidence that Adrien hasn't seen Disney movies, or played Pokemon, or learned very much about how to go about renting an apartment of his own someday (_that_ is a conversation that leaves Marinette wondering quite a lot, even this much later). Nino had come so close to ranting in that deserted corner store, waving a bag of chips around wildly enough that Marinette had had to duck around him, that she'd been honestly worried he was going to get akumatized. She's still sort of surprised he hadn't been. She wouldn't be shocked if Nino were akumatized for Adrien's sake a second time; she's known Nino for most of her life, and Nino will do _a lot_ for his friends.

She hopes that Nino's with Alya now, actually, because this akuma is vicious enough and obvious enough that there's no way Alya didn't both try to record it _and_ get hit by it. Alya is plenty capable on her own, when she isn't actively running into danger, but Nino will do everything he can to make sure that she _isn't_ on her own and Marinette can't deny that's a relief.

It also means that Nino won't be alone. 

She really, _really _hopes Chat Noir didn't get caught somewhere alone. They've seen enough of each other's nightmares at this point that she knows how awful it would be for Chat Noir to be trapped and _alone_, how much he would _hate _that. They've been so careful not to get separated by any of the nightmare akuma before now. 

She'd thought she'd be back with Viperion before it could be a problem, though. They _have_ defeated all the previous nightmare akuma, she hadn't thought that she'd make it back with the Snake Miraculous and still no partner in sight.

Shutting her eyes, Marinette takes a very deep breath, then carefully lets it back out before forcing her eyes back open again.

That doesn't help, either.

Not when both the boys are practically clinging to each other and now giving _her _worried, protective looks.

"-splitting up _is_ generally a bad idea," Marinette says weakly, while a voice in the back of her head screams at her for it. Bad idea or not, they have to _do it_ so that she can transform and give Luka his Miraculous and get Adrien out of here. She can already _feel_ Tikki's disapproval. 

But Marinette's also not about to deny that if she had to find herself trapped with someone besides Chat Noir, well, neither Adrien nor Luka is exactly _low_ on her list.

Why do the two of them have to get along so well? This would be easier if they would stop trying to protect each other!

Luka tugs Adrien gently behind himself, then holds out a hand for Marinette. "Come on, let's find some place safer until Ladybug and Chat Noir have a chance to get here." 

_Chat Noir _will_ be here, he's probably only delayed_. Marinette seizes on _that_ idea with an intensity that would be concerning if she stopped to think about it. Her partner will definitely provide enough of a distraction once he gets here that they can all split up, transform and get Adrien somewhere safe. Distractions are what her kitty's _good_ at. 

It never occurs to her that Chat Noir has no way to know where they are. He _always_ comes to her, or at the very least Plagg shows up to tell her why he hasn't; she has no reason to think that Chat Noir won't be here this time, unless she slips away before that to go to him. 

It's Luka that leads the way further into the house, which unsettles Marinette in a way she doesn't want to examine too closely. Something feels off about having Adrien in front of her, too, and it isn't until he drops behind to watch their backs that her skin stops prickling uncomfortably. 

Except that now Marinette's sandwiched between Luka and Adrien, and Adrien is hovering _really closely_ as he scans the area for threats, and Luka is keeping far too close as well, and oh wow she did _not_ think this through anywhere near enough. 

They do need that closeness, though. The house is- well, it's a very, very solid creation, in that it's a very real haunted house in a way that makes Marinette hope desperately that it isn't somehow _actually haunted_, but it's also dilapidated in every way an old house can be. Floorboards creak and warp and bend, there are shadows in the halls and weird stains on the walls, and once when they pass what she thinks is the kitchen Marinette is _certain _she hears groaning and rattling. 

"Did you hear that?" Adrien breathes at her back, and Marinette fights not to shiver at his voice right at his ear. She fights this closely with Chat Noir all the time but that's _different_, that's her _partner_. They've fought practically on top of each other too many times to have any personal space between them and Marinette is _not _succeeding at distracting herself from the way _Adrien _isn't leaving any personal space between them-

(He hadn't as Aspik, either, but it isn't the same when she isn't transformed. She doesn't normally wish for the protection of her suit quite this badly unless they're in an active battle).

"I heard _something_," Luka says softly from up ahead, turning sideways just enough to halt Marinette with one hand on her arm. Between the press of his skin against hers and the way Adrien is still crowding close to their backs Marinette's brain is attempting to stall out, which is a bit of a concern when she's supposed to be a _strategist_.

She should have gone ahead and strategised herself a way out of this mess by now, but every time she starts to worry about it again she's distracted by Luka's hands on her or on Adrien or by Adrien's voice right behind her and wow she seriously had not thought hard enough about the consequences of staying together. She shouldn't still be staying with them, she needs to leave and transform, but the house isn't presenting a lot of options for that.

There _are _holes in the floors and ceilings, enough that Marinette could probably try to fall through one and transform once they've lost her, but she's not sure they won't both jump after her.

Adrien and Luka are both still _really close_. They are _way too close_.

Marinette absolutely does not want them to change that, but Chat Noir should be here by now, if only to save her from herself.

The three of them end up making for the stairs and huddling at the bottom to have a whispered conversation about whether or not they should try for the first floor.

"These stairs look pretty beat," Adrien says, eyeing them uncertainly. "I'm not sure they'll hold all of us. Maybe we should go up one at a time?"

"What if there's something waiting for us at the top?" Luka counters, stepping very smoothly in front of both Adrien and Marinette and blocking the staircase. "I've definitely been hearing things in here, and if this akuma can create a place like _this-_" He gestures around them, though he has to keep his arms fairly close to his body to avoid accidentally hitting either Adrien or Marinette. The space at the bottom of the stairs is _not_ large enough for all three of them. "There's a chance this house is _actually_ haunted. Are either of you afraid of ghosts?"

Adrien's lips twitch in what's very nearly a smirk, and an oddly familiar one at that, before he offers, "We ain't afraid of no ghosts?"

Marinette giggles, relieved that the darkness hides her blush. She's been mostly keeping it under control outwardly, because she _can_ remember that this is technically a battle situation if she tries, but Adrien's odd shyness about venturing a joke is really cute. 

Marinette wants to say that she isn't afraid of ghosts herself, but she isn't going to lie about that, especially not when it could get them all killed. "I'm, um. Y-yes, I was really afraid of ghosts after I saw The Haunting." She feels herself flush. "I slept with my lights on for like two weeks."

"Me too," Adrien says, well before Marinette can get embarrassed. "_Especially_ with how quiet the mansion is at night. I kept convincing myself I heard things in the hallways." He shrugs, not quite looking at either of them, and admits, "It, uh, I fell asleep with the lights on for a while after- after Mom, too."

Luka nods, slowly. "I'm not really afraid of ghosts, but-" He looks between them apologetically. "Well, there's definitely going to be some in here. Is there anything else we should be watching out for, specifically?" He rubs the back of his head. "I'd start, but I'm not really _sure_ what my worst fear is? And I haven't gotten caught in one of these battles yet."

"I have," Marinette says, her voice much steadier now that she's thinking more in terms of battle strategy. "And they aren't really _about _your worst fear. I mean, my worst fear's not _ghosts_, you know?" To her surprise, she finds herself exchanging a tired look with Adrien. "Nightmares aren't _like_ that. These akuma don't work like a boggart, they really _are_ like nightmares. Sometimes they don't make any sense, they're just weird and frightening and unsettling."

"Oh," Luka says, softly. Marinette might be imagining it in the dim light, but she thinks his eyes are wider than before. "I hadn't realised." 

"Yeah, so if this one is _combining_ nightmares?" Adrien grimaces, rubbing his arms as he steps in closer to them both. "We don't know what its limit is."

Marinette sucks in a breath. "We don't know if it _has_ one."

Luka's brow furrows. "Maybe we should hide and wait for Ladybug and Chat Noir to win, then."

Marinette barely turns away in time to hide her wince. "Maybe. But we shouldn't rely on them _all _the time, don't you think?"

"Expecting Ladybug to just fix everything puts way too much pressure on her." Adrien's voice is very soft, but they're all still standing so close that she couldn't possibly miss his words even if she wanted to. "Even Chat Noir does it, and it isn't fair to her."

Marinette frowns, unable to argue with that but _wanting _to. Chat Noir, at least, doesn't _mean_ to do it. 

Not after one of Ladybug's nightmares had been Chat Noir accusing her of letting him down, anyway. They'd had to have a _long_ talk that night. Too many of her nightmares are about Chat Noir sacrificing himself for her, in one way or another, and too many of _his_ are about somehow not living up to her expectations or disappointing her (as if her brave, loyal, stupidly self-sacrificial partner could _ever_ disappoint her-); they'd really _had_ to have a long discussion about it.

That they're _both _afraid of disappointing each other had splintered _that_ fear neatly into pieces. 

Luka blinks. "I hadn't thought of it that way. You're right, though, Adrien." He turns towards Adrien with a soft smile. "That's really cool of you, to worry about how Ladybug feels like that."

Adrien flushes and drops his gaze to the floor, rubbing the back of his neck. To Marinette's confused amazement he actually stammers when he says, "S-someone has to, you know."

"I'm pretty sure her partner does." Luka is looking around the area again, like he's scanning for possible exits one more time, and he misses Marinette's hastily masked expression.

She's not sure whether or not _Adrien_ misses it, but he doesn't say anything about it.

And then Luka's hands are on both of them again, and Marinette's pretty sure some of her higher brain functions shut right back off as he suggests, "I think we should get to one of the bedrooms, if the stairs will hold us." Luka glances up. "This house echoes like it has more than one of them and I don't think the villain will expect us to leave this floor."

Marinette doesn't think she can argue with Luka when he has one hand on Adrien's shoulder and the other on her arm. Marinette doesn't think _words_ are on the table right now.

As Alya would say, the compass is _definitely_ going crazy. The compass is trying to steer her between Charybdis and Scylla and it is _failing_ _her_.

The stairs hold. They keep hold of each other all the way up them, ostensibly in case the staircase does collapse (it would be helpful if it would just collapse), but Marinette also doesn't particularly want to let go of either of her friends. 

From the hold Luka has on her hand as he leads the way and the way Adrien immediately returns to hovering at her back with a hand on her shoulder, they don't want to let go either.

Tikki is going to _kill her_ for this.

But she can transform as soon as Chat Noir gets here, or at least fairly quickly afterwards. She's sure he'll want Marinette to hide some place safe, and then he-

Will think that _Adrien_ has to hide to use the Snake Miraculous, not Luka.

Marinette winces, because she hasn't had a chance to clear that up yet and she's not even sure whether she _should _be clearing it up, but she knows that she has to. Chat Noir had been so happy to finally be entrusted with a secret identity at all; she _has_ to let him know that Viperion isn't Adrien.

She probably shouldn't tell him that Luka is.

But she doesn't see how she can justify _not_ telling him when she'd told him about Adrien.

She shouldn't have told him and she knows it, and she can't believe that of all people she'd put _Adrien's_ identity in jeopardy, but- but he'd looked so _happy_ to be trusted with anyone's identity. And anyway, Adrien's identity hadn't _been_ in jeopardy, not with her partner. She _does _trust him, and while she still doesn't think that they should know each other's identities it really isn't fair that _she_ knows who everyone is. 

She knows that Master Fu has contacted him by now. She wishes Master Fu would give Chat Noir a Miraculous to hand out, if only to even things out between them. 

They make short work of discovering that the house is surprisingly large for being a magical construct. 

They also make short work of the murderous doll waiting in the hallway with a knife. 

"Okay," Adrien says, staring, after Marinette's let out a yelp and flung out a hand towards the doll. "Whose was that, and _why _did it just burst into flames?"

"Uh, mine," Marinette says, a little shakily. "And I guess because I quit _having_ that nightmare after I caught the damn thing and _burned _it the last time I dreamt about it."

Luka whistles, softly, so as not to draw attention. "Even in your nightmares, you're amazing, huh?"

"Seriously," Adrien says, voice full of admiration. "Of course_ you've_ fought your nightmares and won. You're our everyday Ladybug after all."

Marinette's pretty sure _she's_ on fire now. She's flushing hot enough to feel like it, anyway.

"Here," Luka says a moment later, coming to a careful halt again and trying to wave them both ahead. "The middle bedroom's probably best, if he comes in after us I think he'll expect us to be to one side."

Marinette agrees with that, honestly, but she still needs them to split up. "Don't you think separate rooms would be more confusing?"

Surprisingly, it's Adrien that counters her. "More confusing, maybe, but not safer. We can all hide in a different _place_ in here, though." Marinette just happens to twist enough towards him to catch the edges of his grin when he says, "I call the monster under the bed."

Luka's lips twitch. "I guess I'll be in the one in the closet, then." 

They both turn to look at her. 

Marinette ducks around Luka to peer into the room herself, trying hard not to react when both boys reach out to steady her. It's an old, old house despite having only truly existed for something like ten minutes- she's not too surprised to spot the wardrobe up against the wall. 

Luckily for both her stress and her _hormones_, there's still a closet as well. 

"I'll take Narnia over there, then," she says, trying to keep her voice light and not give away how increasingly urgent it is that they all go for different hiding spots. At the same time, she can't keep herself from thinking that she definitely wouldn't mind squeezing into any one of those hiding spots with either of them. Both of them. 

She really shouldn't have let herself think about both of them, together, huddled in a small space with her. She really needs to _stop_ thinking about that.

Right now. She needs to stop thinking about that _right now_.

The thee of them creep into the room together with the same caution they'd used downstairs, though Adrien seems surprisingly more inclined to simply dart in than she and Luka are. Adrien's the first to reach his chosen hiding place, simply because he drops to the floor and starts to roll under the bed right away. 

He rolls back _out_ from under the bed much, much faster, eyes very wide.

"What-" Marinette starts, and misses Luka opening the closet door right up until he backs up fast enough to nearly crash into her.

"_Occupied_," Adrien half-hisses, scrambling back to his feet and grabbing Marinette's arm with one hand and Luka's with the other. "Those spots are already taken let's get out of here!"

There's no hiding in either of the next two bedrooms. Those are _also _occupied. 

They aren't even sure which of them these nightmares belong to.

Marinette is the one to slam the door on the second room they try, because as soon as she opens it a haunting wail starts up, and she has no desire to find out if banshees are suddenly a _thing_ here. She has no desire to find out anything at all about banshees ever again, thanks.

Adrien starts to throw the third door open in a hurry and Luka stops him, only to hastily shove the door back shut as a bony arm reaches out.

The arm breaks off in the closed door and starts groping along the hallway floor.

"I don't _like_ this house," Marinette says fervently, kicking it away from them just before Adrien pulls both of them through another door.

She's starting to think that maybe she should have gone ahead of both boys. They don't seem to ever consider checking the rooms for danger _before_ diving into them, because evidently every important boy in Marinette's life is prone to leaping without looking first. She had honestly thought that these two _would_, she'd even thought rather guiltily that it might make for a nice reprieve from Chat Noir's tendency to rush into danger, but it isn't proving even remotely true.

She really should be going ahead of them anyway so that she can sneak away and transform. She really, _really _should.

She doesn't, though.

The room Adrien's pulled everyone into reveals itself to be a master bedroom, and Marinette has just enough time to see the hiding place he's aiming for this time. 

Which means that she has just barely enough time to register that Adrien's about to throw the three of them onto a curtained four-poster bed before he does it, and nowhere _near _enough time to mentally prepare herself for it.

The stupid haunted house does not have a terribly _large _bed in the master bedroom. It _should_, or at least she feels like it should, but of course it doesn't. Nothing in this place could possibly go easy on her.

They all land in a flailing tangle of limbs, nearly bringing the curtains uselessly down around them before Luka manages to reach out and wrestle them shut and Adrien squirms far enough to one side for all of them to huddle into the dark, hidden space. 

Marinette swallows, hard, and is suddenly glad for the _dark_ part of that equation because there is very little space left between the three of them. She can sort of guess where everyone is from where they'd landed, she knows that it's Luka braced haphazardly over everyone else and that therefore it has to be Adrien pressed up close against her back, but that doesn't actually help her figure out whose leg it is twisted up around her own or whose arm is flung across her back or- it has to be Adrien's breath against the back of her neck, doesn't it, and that means that it's Luka's quiet breathing _right_ in front of her mouth, close enough to kiss, and Marinette is not handling this well at _all_, really. 

And then the door to the room _slams _open, and there's a click of shoes on tile (and didn't this room have carpet-?) and Adrien whimpers against her neck and scrunches up tighter, smaller, behind her. Hiding. 

Marinette shifts uncomfortably, but she's moving to help hide Adrien, not to get away from him. She might be uncomfortable, but he's suddenly and obviously scared, and Marinette has fought a dozen nightmare akuma and as far as she knows the boys haven't fought any. She and Chat Noir try their hardest to keep civilians from those fights, because of how terrifying the nightmare akuma can be; if Luka weren't also Viperion and therefore not technically a civilian then Marinette would never have let _him_ this close. 

But the footsteps stop and Luka's arms tighten around her. That confuses Marinette briefly, because she's pretty sure Luka knows this nightmare isn't _hers_, but then she realises- it's Adrien he's trying to comfort. She's between them, Luka's hold on _her_ is incidental. 

If someone had asked, she'd have said she wouldn't enjoy that.

That, she's discovering, is a big fat _lie_. 

Sadly, she doesn't get to enjoy it for long.

She recognises Gabriel Agreste's voice when he speaks. 

It would be difficult not to, especially with the way it resounds and fills the room, far louder than should be possible. 

"You know the rules," the man- the nightmare version of the man- says, proud and commanding, the voice of someone who does not expect an argument. Someone who will not _tolerate_ an argument. "You know not to break them."

Adrien's breath speeds up. Luka presses closer, hunched protectively over them both, and ducks down in a way that feathers his breath across Marinette's collarbone as he whispers something to Adrien that's too quiet for her to make out. Not that Marinette's trying very hard; she's too focused on staying completely still as the boys huddle close with her between them. 

She also doesn't want to make _any _noise if she can help it. As she and Chat Noir have learned, over and over, when the akuma bring nightmares to life they give them _form_. The nightmare version of Adrien's father _can_ hurt them, if Adrien is frightened enough. 

She's pretty sure that Adrien _is _frightened enough. 

The click of shoes comes closer, slowly. The expensive shoes against tiled floor echo in a way they shouldn't in a tiny carpeted room. 

Marinette suspects if any of them were to peer out right now, they wouldn't _be _in a tiny carpeted room any longer. 

The house _had_ seemed too large. She wonders, now, how much of the structure shares a floor plan with the Agreste Manor. She _thinks_ Adrien would have said something if it does but she's not _sure_.

"_Adrien_," the nightmare version of Adrien's father snaps out, and Adrien shudders and ducks his head, his breath uneven across the nape of her neck. Marinette wants to comfort him, but she's just as frozen as he is.

They _can't_ get caught. She has to be able to get away and transform or they're all going to get stuck here. 

She could probably get away and transform right now if she were willing to risk Adrien and Luka's safety, but she's _not_.

"Answer me!" Gabriel Agreste's voice doesn't seem to actually be getting any louder, but it swells and echoes in the room. 

"_It's not him_," Luka whispers, softly, drawing Marinette's attention back as Adrien's breathing eases. Luka uses the nightmare Gabriel's raised voice to cover his own quiet words as he continues, "It's not him, he isn't here. Adrien, you're with Marinette and me, remember? It's only an akuma. We've gotten through akuma before. It'll be okay."

Luka has to stop, then, because Gabriel's stopped talking and Luka would be heard if he continued, but Marinette's mind is whirling. They've gotten through akuma before? She knows they were caught together during Desperada, but she thinks she'd have damn well _noticed _if Luka and Adrien, of all people, had been teaming up to fight akuma when she wasn't looking. 

She doesn't get very long to think about it, because another voice slides in under Gabriel's and it's Marinette's turn to freeze.

"He's probably snuck off with that Dupain-Cheng girl," Lila's voice says, in a tone Marinette would refer to as a purr if she didn't _refuse_ to give Lila any words she uses for her partner. "You know what a bad influence she is. She's just as bad as that trashy boy you keep having to kick out-"

_What? _Marinette thinks, confused, because _that's _not a part of her nightmares. She wouldn't mind being alone with Adrien-

Oh. Nino. That bit was still part of _Adrien's_ nightmares. 

\- so which of them is _Lila_ here for?

"-you just _know_ that girl is terrible, don't you? All the _lies_ she's told-"

Marinette's blood starts to boil, hearing that, and she nearly starts hissing and spitting like Chat Noir.

"_Don't listen_," Luka hisses back, as quietly as he can. "Either of you. They're not _here_."

Marinette's pretty sure that's easier said than done, but she takes a deep breath and tries her best to follow Luka's advice. 

It works a lot more quickly than she'd have expected, to her surprise- Lila's commentary fades into nothing but faint grumbling in seconds, sounds indistinguishable from the sounds of the storm outside.

-but it hadn't _been_ storming outside.

She wants to ask which of them is afraid of thunderstorms, because she knows it isn't _her_, but she can't risk being overheard. Even if she could, it's generally considered rude to ask about what the nightmare akuma show people. A lot of people see silly nightmares, true- she's pretty sure her papa's been attacked by bread twice now, and Alya has confided in tones of dramatic humour that all the charging stations in her home have disappeared before- but a lot of people see much more serious things as well, and no one wants to _admit_ their worse fears.

Especially when no one is sure whether or not Hawkmoth will see them.

Gabriel isn't talking any more, but his presence still seems to fill the room. Marinette's not sure if Lila's still here or not, but she doesn't think so. After all, Luka and Adrien are the two people she trusts would never listen to Lila over Marinette, and it's never been Lila _herself_ that's frightening. 

Luka takes a deep breath, then another. Adrien breathes at her back, far more slowly than before but out of rhythm still, and it takes Marinette a concentrated effort not to react to both boy's proximity. 

Luka breathes out, "I don't think he's going to leave on his own. We're going to have to get past him."

Just as softly, Adrien answers him. "That- that might be a little difficult." 

Luka pushes himself up slightly on his elbows, eyes flickering between the two of them. "We won't know until we try. But I know either one of you would be able to get through here alone. With all of us together, it should be easy, right?" 

Marinette flushes at the praise, but she sits up after him, keeping her movements slow and careful so that they don't alert the spectre of Gabriel Agreste just outside. She goes to offer Adrien a hand up a moment later and ends up grasping his free hand.

Luka's already taken his other hand. 


	2. never sleep again

There's still no real light source in the room, but now lightning flashes illuminate the other side of the curtains periodically. Lila is gone again, but Gabriel's form is standing just outside their tiny haven, still and foreboding and _ looming _ in a way that makes Marinette's heart pound. 

For more than one reason, actually- if this is pulling from Adrien's _ nightmares_, then what does that say about the kind of man his father actually is? It's been obvious for a while now that Gabriel Agreste falls far short of the person Marinette had looked up to when she was younger, but does he really fall _ this _ far short?

"Ready?" Luka whispers, dragging Marinette's attention back. Forcing her focus back to the problem at hand- _ it's an akuma, you may not have Chat Noir yet but you do have Adrien and Luka, that nearly makes up for it, you can do this _\- Marinette nods and readies herself to lunge. 

Her silent self-reassurance is more accurate than she'd expected. She doesn't think to warn or signal the boys what she's about to do, because she _ is _ used to Chat Noir and she wouldn't _ have _ to warn or signal him, but somehow Adrien already knows to go low when Marinette dives high out of their shelter at the spectre. She hits the false Gabriel around the middle just as Adrien hits him around the shins and the weight of them both of sends him careening to the floor, just before Luka steps over them to haul Marinette and Adrien both to their feet and into a run towards the door.

That doesn't entirely sit right with Marinette- she doesn't like to leave an enemy at their backs- but she recognises guiltily that it's _ probably _ a little rough on Adrien if they stop to beat up his father (though she has the sudden irreverent thought that Nino would definitely enjoy the chance. She has _ heard _ some of Nino's thoughts on Adrien's father). 

Luka lets go of their hands relatively quickly and Marinette doesn't stumble, only speeds up, because Luka's only let go to shove the door open ahead of them and Marinette is still holding Adrien's hand tightly. 

It's only when the door _ does _ swing open that Marinette realises that she hadn't been expecting it to. 

It slams shut again the second they're all through, and Luka turns so sharply ahead of them that Marinette and Adrien both stumble into him as he gestures at the door. 

The door vanishes, replaced with smooth wall.

"I didn't know if that would work or not," Luka says, a little shakily. "But I thought, if Marinette could light that doll on fire earlier- maybe it's not _ just _ nightmares, now." 

Marinette blinks and Adrien gets it faster than she does.

"...you mean like lucid dreaming?" he asks, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand. He still hasn't let go of Marinette's hand. Marinette is not planning on drawing attention to that anytime soon. "You think we can _ use _ the akuma's powers against it?"

"Probably won’t be as simple as just wishing our way out, but yes," Luka admits. Moments later, there's a loud crash at the same time as lightning illuminates the hallway and Luka flinches. "For right now, though, I think I'd just like to get away from some of these windows."

"_What _ wind-" Marinette starts, because the hallway definitely hadn't had any kind of windows in it before, and then she stops and glances up. High up, closer to the ceiling than to them, are portholes in a neat little row along both sides of the hallway. They're too high up to reach effectively and too small for any of them to fit through, even her, but otherwise they look nearly identical to the portholes on the Liberty.

As she watches, lightning strikes down far too close and crawls over several of them. 

Well. That answers her question about whose nightmare the storm belongs to. 

Though Adrien doesn't look thrilled about it either. For that matter, _ Marinette's _not thrilled about it; even if they didn’t tend to remind her uneasily of Stormy Weather, storms these days mostly make her worry incessantly about how the wind and rain and lightning is going to affect her and Chat Noir's battle plans. Rain makes the rooftops slick and their targets hard to see, and high winds can throw off their aim no matter how hard they practice, and although Chat Noir's staff is probably more magic than metal it's always made her nervous to see him using it when there's lightning striking around them.

Looking around swiftly establishes that Luka's trick has backfired in an unfortunate way.

Now there aren't _ any _ doors in the hallway. Even the stairs they'd come up to get here are gone. 

"Well," Adrien finally says, and he sounds uneasy and subdued and not much like himself. "Should we start walking?"

After another few minutes trying fruitlessly to come up with another plan (and in Marinette's case, trying to reassure Tikki without being obvious about it, which is all the more difficult because Tikki is clearly not the least bit reassured), they start walking. 

And walking. 

And walking. 

Marinette doesn't realise the way they've all drawn close enough together to risk tripping each other until the voices start up. 

She startles badly at the first voice, because it's _Alya's_, and she knows damn well Alya isn't here. 

And because it's Alya's voice saying, in a tone of disgust Marinette's only ever heard directed at Chloe, "Ugh, I wish Marinette wasn't so _ unreliable_."

Marinette flinches badly back into Adrien's hand on her shoulder. She doesn't have any idea when Adrien _ put _his hand on her shoulder.

"Tell me about it," Nino's voice grouses in response, and Adrien stops still for a moment before Marinette takes a deep breath and leans back into his hand and against his side. It throws her badly at first, because she's very used to leaning up against Chat Noir's side but for the most part it's something she _ only _ does with Chat Noir, but the way Adrien presses back is very nearly as calming and reassuring as her partner doing the same thing. 

Luka's stopped dead ahead of them. He'd gone a little stiff at Alya's disembodied comment, and his head is tilted like he's listening cautiously for anything more. 

He doesn't have to listen so carefully. Nino- _ not_-Nino's next words ring so loudly that they'd be impossible to miss. "Adrien's _ never _ available. I'm _ sure _ the dude's learned how to sneak out by now. Guess we're not important enough to him to sneak out for." 

Adrien's arm jerks in hers. Marinette starts to say something, worried and knowing that Nino definitely does _ not _ think that, but by then her own parent's voices are starting to overlap their friends.

"-don't know where we went wrong," she catches from her mother, voice sounding tired and defeated. "We've tried to be good parents, haven't we?"

"And yet I'm sure she's sneaking out at night. Maybe we should be locking that skylight, I don't know _ what _ she's doing-"

Marinette regrets having pressed so close to Adrien now. There's no way he can't feel her shaking. She knows her parents don't think that-

-she's _ fairly _ sure her parents don't think that. She can't be certain that they don't. 

She hopes it doesn't occur to either of her friends that a locked skylight is a strange thing for her to worry about (she _needs_ to be able to leave), but considering Adrien's own fears she doesn't think they're likely to wonder about it. 

(She's also very acutely aware that the version of Adrien's father they'd bowled over had seemed a lot more... _ evidence-based _ than this. Her parents have never said anything like this in her earshot. She doesn't think that's the case with Adrien).

Luka's still ahead of them but he's slowed considerably, turning enough to keep them in his sight. "Um... guys?" He nods down at the floor, shaky himself. "I think we should try and go faster." 

Marinette's been distracted enough by the sourceless voices that she hadn't notice the rising problem until Luka pointed it out. 

She probably should have. There's _ water _seeping into the hallway, curling around their ankles and trying to tug them off their feet. 

She can't tell where it's coming from, either. Even if any of the windows were _ open_, she doesn't see how this much water could have spread this quickly. 

Then she quickly recalls all the _ other _ things they've encountered in this house and decides she's probably thinking about it too hard.

Adrien pulls forward, but very gently, careful not to dislodge Marinette. "Luka?"

Luka's still staring down at the water, blinking rapidly, and when he raises his head to answer the hallway abruptly pitches sideways and sends all three of them stumbling against the wall and each other. Before they can get their bearings, it pitches back the other way.

Marinette's never been afraid of storms. She likes storms, or at least she used to; she likes curling up under all her blankets in bed and listening to the rain against the skylight from where she's safe and warm inside. She doesn't like _ fighting _ in them, true, but she thinks that's understandable. 

She's never considered what living on a _ ship _ might mean for a serious thunderstorm.

No wonder a storm's shown up for Luka.

Luka doesn't say anything, even now, but he does gently pull everyone back to their feet before nodding back down the hallway. "Let's keep going. And- _ don't _listen."

Right on cue, Juleka's voice cuts through the sound of the storm like a flash of lightning. She sounds much younger than usual and _ far _ more accusatory. "_You're _ the reason we don't have a dad, aren't you?"

Luka does flinch at that.

Paradoxically, it makes Marinette feel a little better, because she knows beyond any doubt that Juleka would never say that- and if Juleka would never say that, it's easier to remind herself that the rest of the voices aren't real, either. 

That doesn't make them any easier to hear. 

"You'd think the storm would drown them out," Adrien says, softly, as they set off down the hallway again. The flooding is slowing them down, but there still aren't any doors to be seen anywhere. Their only options are continuing down the hallway or turning around and Marinette does not have to ask to know that none of them want to turn around.

Adrien's let go of her now but he and Luka are both still treading so close that she's surprised they aren't all tripping over each other even more often. The rising water isn't helping, either. It's harder to yank their feet up high enough to keep moving with every minute and it isn't long before they're wading down the hallway without even _ trying _to lift their feet. 

Just as Alya's voice rises above the others again, saying something Marinette's trying hard not to hear, something about how she shouldn't be so quick to judge people, a much louder crash of thunder shakes the hall and several of the portholes fly open. Wind and rain drives into the hallway from both sides and Luka takes a quick step back that ends with him crashing into Marinette and with Adrien trying to steady everyone. 

Marinette shivers as the a chill cuts through her, the wind and rain and damp making her clothes cling unpleasantly. She's glad she has her hair pulled back; Luka has to keep blowing his out of his face.

She's not the only one shivering in soaked clothing. She _ really _wishes it was a situation she could appreciate more.

(It would be a lie to say she isn't still appreciating it a _ little_. Fighting supervillains every other day _ does _ things to your sense of self-preservation and she has _ eyes_).

It's harder to hear each without shouting now, but the disembodied voices of their friends and family are definitely getting louder and more difficult to block out. 

The most prominent noise right now is sobbing, and it takes Marinette a while to work out that it's _ Rose _ she can hear sobbing and she is _ not _ going to ask about that, but she does hear Lila's voice start up again.

She doesn't hear what it says, because Luka starts singing, loudly, his voice echoing off the walls and thrown eerily back at them by the wind. "Walking down this endless highway-"

He nudges Adrien, who startles slightly but then joins in with a grateful look at the other boy while Marinette's still trying to place the oddly familiar song. It's not the kind of thing she usually listens to, and yet she knows it from somewhere. "Nothing but my friends beside me!"

"Never give in, never rest, advanced battle is the ultimate test," Marinette sings, louder, as she places the lyrics with a wave of relief. "From the earth and land and sea and sky-"

"-They can never win but they sure can _ try_!" Both Adrien and Luka belt out together, cheerfully, and Marinette perks up as she realises the rain is starting to lessen. There's still voices whispering in the wind, but they're losing volume and soon she can hardly hear the taunts as the three of them sing louder. 

Marinette's grateful now that Chat Noir's been on a weird Pokémon kick lately- he's been singing different theme songs for weeks now, and this and the original theme had both been stuck in her head for _ days_. She hadn't expected to find herself so grateful for it so quickly.

"There's a feeling deep inside me, and it's always there to guide me, in my heart and in my soul leading me to my ultimate goal!" They're mostly in harmony now, and either they're getting louder or the winds are dying down even more. It might be both. 

Their progress is still slow but it's starting to speed back up as the water recedes.

"You can find yourself this might be fun, you're down to defeat before we've begun! Ohhhh, oh, oh, oh-" Luka and Adrien flash grins at each other as they reach the end of the song and Marinette's heart decides to skip a beat or two. "We're _ unbeatable_!" 

They're not at the end of the hallway, not yet- there's still not an end in sight, really- but both the storm and the whispers have died down. They're not _ gone_, but they're very subdued, now. 

Still, they make sure to take turns singing or humming after that. 

They make it through another two Pokémon themes, the opening to Sailor Moon, and most of I'll Make A Man Out Of You before they have to stop to look for any more changes in the hallway. Marinette _thinks_ they would have noticed, but if they don't stop and check it's going to drive her mad.

"Okay," Marinette finally says, eyeing the distance they still have to traverse and not seeing any end. She thinks there's a curve to the hall that wasn't there before, though. It's impossible to know for sure how long they've been travelling down this aggravating hallway, because they'd discovered quickly no one's phones are working anymore. She doubts their phones have been working this entire time, although she wants to kick herself for the fact that none of them had even thought to check. "Do we have any idea whose nightmare this is? Maybe if we know, we'll know how to get it to stop."

"I don't _ think _ it's mine?" Adrien sounds uncertain. "I don't really _ like _ storms but I'm not afraid of- oh, wait." He makes a face. "The _ storm's _ not mine. The hallway.... might be." He looks down it, then back the way they've come. "It does kind of look like one of the upstairs hallways, if it had carpeting."

"Okay," Marinette says, thinking fast but also trying _ not _to think about any of the things that Adrien's comments suggest. Now is not the time. There will be time later, but only if they get out of here first. "How long is the actual hallway?"

"Pretty long," Adrien admits, reluctantly. "It kind of curves around in on itself so that it _ is _ longer." He makes a face. "I hate that hallway, actually, it doesn't really go anywhere. It just ends in a-"

"Weird stained glass window?" Luka calls, from only slightly ahead of them. Another lightning flash illuminates him as he turns to raise an eyebrow at them both. "'Cause if so, I think we found the end."

Marinette raises her own eyebrows right back. "_This _ hallway is pretty straight. I don't think that endpoint existed before we started talking about it."

Adrien takes a cautious step forward, ending right next to Marinette, so close that his arm brushes hers. With his overshirt still missing, the brush of skin against skin makes her have to fight back a shiver. "Actually, the real hallway ends in a locked door. I'd kinda assumed this would too, if it had an end."

Luka and Marinette both turn to give him strange looks, but it's Luka who speaks up first. "You've got a hallway in your house that just ends in a locked door?"

"_Securely _locked," Adrien asserts. "Believe me, I tried everything I could think of to get it open as a kid. Nathalie always said it was just a roof access door and it was locked for safety reasons, but-" He shrugs. "I've, uh, found other ways onto the roof? There are definitely not any access doors up there."

"So you don't even know where it _ goes_?" Marinette's can't help her outburst, suddenly consumed by curiosity herself. "When's the last time you tried it, anyway?" 

"A few years-" Adrien stops very suddenly and swats at his pocket, before his gaze darts back to them both. "A few years ago." He looks away again, rubbing at the back of his neck. "Father doesn't really like me going up to that part of the house anymore."

Neither of them is sure what to say to that, especially after their earlier encounter, but Marinette's more than a little taken aback by that. She knows how strict his father can be from all the times Adrien has tried and failed to make it to group outings, but she'd assumed he at least had free reign to walk around his own _ home_.

They _don't_ have time for her to think about that right now.

Marinette takes a deep breath and gestures to the stained glass. "W-well. _ This _isn't a locked door at all, I think we can break through it."

The pause that follows is longer than she'd expected. Adrien looks more than willing to follow her advice immediately, but Luka's expression is one of growing concern. 

And it isn't like Adrien doesn't have the best reason of them to want to leave- his father is still behind them somewhere, after all. None of Marinette or Luka's fears have manifested quite so strongly.

Or rather, Adrien has the best reason that he knows of, assuming he isn't prioritising getting _ Luka _ out of here. Marinette _ needs _ to get out of here, right now, immediately, and it would be so much easier if she'd just found a way to separate from the boys earlier but-

She can't regret not leaving them alone. _ She _ doesn't want to be alone, and she's not at all sure any of them would be handling this half as well by themselves. 

She'd have been able to transform and leave if she was caught by herself, but she doesn't want to think of Luka or Adrien being alone in here, either. These nightmares seem... a lot _ darker _ than the last time they'd fought Sandboy. They're a lot darker than any of her civilian nightmares have ever been, and even the worse nightmares she and Chat Noir have encountered together have always been from older nightmare akuma.

(Seriously, someone needs to ban this kid from Netflix or something, _ how _ has this happened more than once? Does his family not believe in parental controls, or-)

"We're not exactly at ground level," Luka finally points out, once he seems to realise neither of the other two are going to say it. "Jumping out the window might not be the best idea."

"It's the only exit we've found," Adrien replies so quickly that Marinette winces, recalling guiltily how sure she still is that the lack of exits is one of _ his _ nightmares. "And we're still _ in _ the nightmares, so we should be able to do _ something _ to break our fall, right?"

"Something that might vanish as soon as we're on the other side of the window," Marinette says, reluctantly. She wants out, too, but she doesn't actually know what will happen if she's seriously injured without being transformed. 

That's- that's something she _ really _ needs to talk to Tikki about, she's realising now. She's sort of surprised it hasn't come up before. 

"It's that or tie our clothing together to climb out," Luka says, dryly, and Marinette's thoughts take a _ very _ sharp and very unhelpful turn. 

Adrien laughs, twisting his shirt to the side and trying to wring out some of the water. "I don't think that'd be long enough, but if I hadn't lost my overshirt on the way in I'd still be willing to try."

Marinette doesn't say anything, busy discovering that 'bite your tongue' is a much more literal turn of phrase than she'd ever realised. She does _ not _ want to know what words would come out of her mouth right now because she can definitely think of some ways that they'd have enough clothing for that rope.

Having to deal with supervillains and pretty boys at the same time is just not fair. She wants Chat Noir back- at least he's a pretty boy she's _ used _ to fighting supervillains with.

She'd really expected him to show up well before now. She'd have expected Plagg to show up by now if something is stopping Chat Noir from transforming, since her partner's kwami has done it before. She's a lot more unnerved than she wants to admit that she hasn't seen any sign of either of them.

This house has been dangerous even with three of them fighting it. If Chat Noir got caught up in something similar, she hopes he isn't alone, either.

There's one way to make sure that he isn't, but they have to get out of here first- and the window ahead is the only way out they've found.

Marinette takes a deep breath. She has an idea, but she doesn't like it, and Tikki is going to like it even less. Still. She _ thinks _ it'll be okay. It's a risk, but they've changed around enough elements of their combined nightmares already that it's a plausible suggestion. "Have you ever dreamed about being Ladybug or Chat Noir?"

"I think all of Paris has." Luka scratches the back of his neck and glances at the window again. "I think _ they _have. Remember Reflekdoll?"

-_ vividly_, but Marinette can't tell him that. She's barely even talked to Tikki or Chat Noir about that.

She'd rather be Ladybug, but that fight had still been _ fun_. (A lot of them are fun, but she feels sort of guilty admitting that to anyone but Chat Noir, and she doesn't _ have _to admit it to Chat Noir. He knows).

"I always liked Viperion," Luka muses himself, and Marinette chokes back a laugh.

She doesn't have to finish explaining her plan, either. Adrien's eyes light up as he catches on first, and it only takes Luka a moment more.

Marinette isn't going to risk actually transforming into Ladybug in front of Adrien and Luka. If they realise how comfortable with Ladybug's powers she is, it's likely to be a huge problem down the road, and she's _ trying _ to be better about thinking of consequences beyond the immediate future.

She doesn't reply to Luka's comment about Reflekdoll, but she does concentrate on the Black Cat Miraculous rather than the Ladybug.

Her suit's not the same one as when she'd actually transformed (_that _ might be even damning than just transforming into Ladybug, at least if Chat Noir sees her. He's the only who'll be just as familiar with it as she is and he would _ know _ it was her). It's fairly close to being Chat Noir's own outfit, and she ducks her head enough to hide her frown as she shakes her arms out. She's always assumed the cuffs on his suit were a style choice but they're actually _ heavy_.

Which is especially weird, because Marinette is quite literally _ dreaming this up_. She doesn't know _ how _ it can have properties she didn't think of ahead of time.

She has his bell and belt, too, but that part was intentional. She's surprised at how comforting it is to have them. 

If she can't have her partner right now, she can at least have those reminders of him.

And then she looks up at the boys to see what they're doing and ends up forgetting about the strange weight of the cuffs entirely.

Luka's Viperion, naturally, and he remembers his own suit so well that she almost moves to check that she still has the Snake Miraculous with her.

That's not what makes her brain stall out, though. No, it's-

Either Adrien had seen a _ lot _ more of that Reflekdoll battle than she'd realised, or he'd really liked Chat Noir's spin on her costume.

(_ Or _ \- the back of her mind whispers, but _ that's _ a thought that Marinette isn't going to entertain. Not now. Maybe not _ ever _ but definitely not _ now_, they have to get _ out _of here).

That the smile Adrien flashes her is just as genuine and cheerful as any of Chat Noir's usual grins does _ not _help.

"Are we all ready for this?" he asks, and the mischief in his eyes reminds her so much of her partner it feels like vertigo. 

Luka snorts and starts humming in response. 

Marinette grins and then starts when her belt-tail lashes. She hadn't thought that it would do that. It's not really her partner's costume, or his Miraculous, so it shouldn't be his powers or his traits.

She spends so much time with him, she supposes that her subconscious had included more of Chat Noir than she'd meant to.

Adrien's grin is still reminiscent of her partner in a way that throws Marinette even further off-balance, because she's transformed and ready to fight and Chat should be here but he's _not_ but at the same time part of her is convinced that he _ is_, because Adrien's approximation of Mister Bug is a lot more accurate than she'd expected-

Viperion- no, _ Luka _ , Sass is still in her purse with Tikki, and isn't _ that _ a weird thought when she's wearing claws and spandex- steps forward again and nods towards the window. "What's the plan, Marinette?"

"Hey," Adrien says, still smiling, though his expression turns loose and affectionate when he looks at both of them in a way that makes Marinette's heart stutter in her chest. "You aren't going to ask Ladybug for the plan?"

It's a relief to hear Luka's laugh. The hallway and voices had worn on Marinette so much more than she'd consciously realised. "If you have a plan, I'm all ears. Though not as much as Marinette, maybe." He turns a teasing look on her. "Chat Noir, huh? I should have guessed." 

"Viperion," she teases back, even though her heart is doing something she would really it rather not. "I think there's more Chat Noir fans than there are Viperion fans!" 

Adrien moves closer to her, gaze sweeping her in a way that makes her glad for how much of her face Chat Noir's mask conceals. She'd never tell Tikki, not now, but she's always been jealous that Chat's face is more hidden than hers is. It doesn't actually make him harder to read because his ears and tail are such strong tells, but then she's not sure how obvious those tells actually are to people who aren't with him more often than not. 

Hawkmoth's akuma have been getting more and more frequent. Marinette hasn't slept through the night in a week and a half, and she's had to beg homework off Alya three times in the last few days, and she's behind on one of Jagged's commissions but he's thankfully proven to be the most understanding client she could have ever asked for, and there have been nights now where she and Chat Noir have met up early and taken turns napping while the other kept watch rather than bother trying to get any sleep at home. 

It's too hard to sleep in her own bed knowing that she could be pulled from sleep and into a fight at any moment. It's getting to be too hard to sleep without her partner at her side, and that's another worry pressing in on her rapidly, because they can't _ do _ that. She depends on him; she doesn't want to be _ dependent _ on him, and he already shows signs of depending way too much on her. 

"There are Viperion fans," Luka says mildly. "Just because you may not know them personally doesn't mean they don't exist." He tilts his head. "After all, I didn't know you were a Chat Noir fan." 

"Fair enough," Marinette concedes gratefully, taking up the end of her tail in one hand and spinning it idly to conceal the nervous twitches it's giving. Her braid had been a lot less inclined to reveal her emotional state. "Besides, _ you _ said Ladybug _ and _ Chat Noir."

“I’m kind of disappointed,” Adrien nudges Luka with an elbow. “I think you’d look way nicer dressed up as Chat Noir. Then we could be Ladybug and the Pussycats.”

“What can I say?” Luka shrugs. “He uses a lyre in battle.” He's fiddling with his wrist already, and Marinette suddenly wonders if he can use Second Chance more than once like this, and then her breath leaves her all at once as she follows that thought to its conclusion. "Wait, if this works the way I think it does-"

Adrien tilts his head at her. For a dizzying moment, Marinette expects to see a cat ear twitch towards her, ready to listen. 

She forces another breath, in and out. "I think we won't time out. I think we can use our powers more than once."

Adrien's entire demeanour brightens, and before Marinette can explain any further than that he's exclaiming, "Lucky Charm!" and a parachute falls into his hands. He looks down at it, then up at them both with an expression that would be accompanied by an excited tail lash if it were her partner with her. 

Marinette tries not to let her own expression show anything. She can't believe that even with Adrien and Luka here she can't stop thinking about Chat Noir, but usually he would _ be _here and it doesn't feel right that he isn't. 

Marinette reminds herself that as soon as she can get outside with the boys, they can all split up and she can go find her partner.

"Lucky Charm," Adrien says again, only slightly more calmly, and gets another parachute. He hands them off to Marinette and Luka before trying a third time.

Inexplicably, he gets a grappling hook that time.

Luka snorts. "I _ thought _ these were surprisingly straightforward. Glad to see it's not entirely going easy on you."

Adrien makes a face at the grappling hook, then keeps making it at Luka. "This is still a dream, sort of. They _ should _ be straightforward, shouldn't they?"

"Adrien, I don't know dream-akuma-world rules," Luka says dryly. "I wouldn't have thought of this working at all. It's a good thing Marinette followed us in here."

Marinette feels the heat rushing to her face at that and turns to hide her blush, or at least the part of her blush that shows beneath her mask. "You would both have been okay even if I hadn't."

Luka shrugs, rubbing at the back of his head. "Maybe, but I'm glad we didn't have to find out. So-" He steps aside and gestures at the window. "Do you want to do the honours?"

Marinette doesn't, actually, but that's only because she's been avoiding looking at the window all this time. There's a picture in the stained glass and all things considered, she doesn't want to know what it is. She doesn't want to _ ever _ know what it is and she knows she won't be able to keep herself from looking at it as she strikes it.

"Marinette?" Adrien says, reminding her that they're both waiting on her. 

They've already had to tackle Adrien's father to get out of this house. Whatever she sees isn't likely to be worse than that. 

Marinette activates Cataclysm first anyway. 

Even though Marinette's only used Cataclysm herself once, the feel of the dark energy coalescing around her clenched fist is comforting. She knows it shouldn't be, knows that it's more destructive force concentrated in one place than she'd ever dreamed of before these last few months, but it's her partner's power. She can't be afraid of it. Even after Dark Cupid, feeling Chat Noir gathering the power for Cataclysm has remained reassuring. 

(She knows he’d tear down the world to protect her).

She's seen enough of his nightmares to know how badly Dark Cupid had scared him. She trusts him enough that she isn't scared _ of _him, even though he'd spent weeks after that fight on edge and twitching away from her whenever she came close to his right side. 

So she'd taken care to fight on his left until he'd finally, gradually, started to relax again. Even now he has days he keeps to her right and she keeps a careful distance between them until he's settled again, but it's gotten far less frequent. Usually he doesn't _ like _ distance between them.

Cataclysm active and throwing off dark sparks of energy, Marinette gathers her courage (thinks of Chat Noir, telling her on that first day how amazing she is) and looks at the stained glass of the window.

And then she starts to laugh. 

"What's-" Adrien starts, and follows her gaze, and then he begins to laugh too. Marinette's heart leaps, because it isn't the polite, restrained laughter that she usually hears from him, but a more carefree and happy laugh that reminds her _ again _ of Chat Noir. 

That's still a thought she can't possibly deal with right now, so she turns back towards the window. 

The scene on it is dramatic, too dramatic to take seriously. Hawkmoth, standing with Ladybug and Chat Noir crumpled at his feet, both fists raised triumphantly instead of snatching for the ring and earrings the way she's sure he would actually do- Hawkmoth, wearing no mask, wearing Lila Rossi's face.

Marinette can't take the thought of Lila Rossi and Hawkmoth being one and the same seriously. 

It would be kind of nice to think she only has to deal with the one enemy, but she honestly doesn't think Lila could be Hawkmoth. Hawkmoth is often petty, yes, but aside from the fact that they already _ know _ he is definitely not a teenage girl he's not petty in the same _ way _ that Lila is. 

Adrien makes a face at the window himself. "Terrifying, but not likely."

Luka raises both eyebrows again. "I am starting to think I'd like to have some very specific conversations with this girl, if she's going to keep showing up in my friend's nightmares."

"Don't worry about it, Luka, it's not worth it," Marinette says, catching her breath. "_She's _not worth it."

"Besides," Adrien adds, darting a glance at Marinette that she can't quite read before looking away and rubbing at the back of his neck. "I might have already had that conversation with her."

Marinette blinks at him, but has to shake off her questions a moment later when she hears the whispers starting back up from down the hall. They still need to get out of here. 

"Everyone ready?" she asks, readying her Cataclysm with a silent apology to Tikki, and waits for both boys to nod. "All right, let's go!"

The window shatters in such a _ satisfying _way. 

Luka straps on his parachute immediately, but Marinette hesitates. 

A grappling hook isn't _ that _different from the way she uses her yo-yo. Is it?

"Trade you," she offers while looking anywhere but at Adrien, feeling herself flush and grateful all over again for Chat Noir's concealing mask. No wonder he seems so happy with it. 

Marinette's less happy with the way she can feel her cat ears flattening. There's another difference between using her partner's Miraculous and dreaming up switching places with her partner. While Chat Noir's ears and tails are reactive to his moods and have been for a long time, if not since the beginning, Marinette's had _ not _been when Plagg had transformed her. That seems to be a product solely of how much of her transformation is based on her partner. 

She shoves down another stray thought about the weight of the cuffs at his wrists and ankles, another about the reassurance of the bell at her throat. She can ask him later. She can find him once they're all safely out of here, they can defeat the akuma, she can remind him about patrol and she can ask him tonight.

She won't ask him, but she _ could_.

(But if it was something he could tell her, he'd have told her. 

That thought doesn't do anything to stop her worrying).

Adrien trades her the grappling hook with a mixed expression, but one she thinks is leaning towards grateful. "Sure, Marinette. I'm not sure how much I trust my aim with that, anyway."

Marinette's mouth opens and closes without sound. Adrien's used to seeing her clumsy, used to seeing her trip and stumble over thin air and over words, and he thinks she'll have better aim than him? She's not Ladybug right now, she's _ Marinette_, who trips all over herself and stutters whenever she tries to speak to him. 

She's Marinette, who he's looking at with the same kind of confidence Chat Noir gives her as Ladybug. 

She takes a deep breath, turns towards the window, and leaps out of it.

The boys follow her in nearly the same moment, but while Luka has his parachute open to slow his fall immediately Adrien lets out a whoop and plummets for a heart-stopping moment first, so that he's beside Marinette when she fires the grappling hook.

And a good thing, too, because it doesn't catch on anything-

-it doesn't catch on anything, but that doesn't mean it doesn't _ hit _ anything-

-it hits Sandboy's pillow, because evidently Sandboy was already right outside. The grappling hook punches through the pillow, scattering feathers everywhere and setting Adrien sneezing, sending the akuma fluttering away. 

The akuma, which she can't purify, because she's not Ladybug right now.

Marinette suffers through a moment of ringing, crystalline panic, through a vision of Sandboy multiplying the way Stoneheart had and of a Paris overrun with night terrors and threatened by Hawkmoth, and then an arm snaps securely around her waist as the familiar sound of a yo-yo zipping past cuts through the rising static in her head. 

Adrien may not actually be her partner, but he's just as quick to use her Miraculous Cure as Mister Bug had been.

For a breathless moment Marinette doesn't think it's going to work. Tikki is still in her purse, still at her side (and she shoves down a poorly-timed giggle at the thought of Chat Noir swaggering around with her purse- not because he can't make it work, but because he _ can_, and he'd have so much fun doing it).

But the ladybugs light and swarm the same as ever, even without Tikki's transformation, and although that unsettles Marinette in a way she doesn't think she can adequately describe she also breathes far easier as soon as she sees it.

Adrien pulls his parachute cord as soon as Marinette wraps her arm around him in turn, an instinctive response to being grabbed in mid-air that's likely to get her in trouble one day. It's an instinct born of throwing herself from building to street to sky alongside Chat Noir, though, and therefore not one that she's ever felt any real inclination to fight.

It's a good thing that Luka's arms are out to catch them both as they land and stumble forward, because as the ladybugs zip off they take the transformations with them.

Marinette twists around in Luka's arms right as Adrien does the same, leaving the three of them huddled nearly as close as they'd been in the bed, and watches as the nightmare mansion crumbles in on itself and vanishes completely.

Marinette lets out a heavy sigh of relief and giggles when Luka and Adrien both echo it.

"So," Luka says, releasing them both and taking a half-step away before raising both arms again. "Pound it?"

Adrien's returning the gesture almost before Luka's finished speaking. 

It takes a little bit of manoeuvring, but Marinette's hands meet both of theirs, too. A stiffness in her shoulders she hadn't been consciously aware of fades away at the familiarity of the gesture. 

A different kind of anxiety rises to take its place. 

She still hasn't seen Chat Noir anywhere.

"So, uh." Adrien clears his throat. "We should... we should probably let Ladybug and Chat Noir know? That we won?" He stops, and there's a light in his eyes that makes the shadows that had been in them before all the more obvious. "Guys. We won." 

Luka blinks and looks around, at the restored city, at the space behind them that's been a nightmare house for- for however long this fight has lasted. Dreams and nightmares and akuma that can cause both don't always follow the normal flow of time. 

Marinette wonders absently what she's late for this time. She's definitely late for _ something_, if only because she's _ always _ late for something.

"You're right," Luka says slowly, turning back with a smile of his own. "We _ did _ win. Has anyone done that without Ladybug or Chat Noir showing up before?"

"Does this count?" Marinette wonders, silently telling her nerves to stop prickling. "If we ended up using the akuma ourselves to transform into them, I mean?"

"_I _ am counting it," Luka says, firmly. "And I bet they will, too." He hesitates. "And... after we tell them, do you want to both come back to the Liberty for a while?" He rubs the back of his neck, but doesn't drop his gaze. "Rose and Juleka will be there later, but it'd be nice to hang out for a while first?"

"I'd love to," Marinette says, and it takes her a moment to realise that the echo in her voice is Adrien saying the same thing.

She still has to figure out how to slip away long enough that Ladybug can make an appearance without raising any suspicions, and she has to find Chat Noir and make sure that _ he's _ okay. They always meet up for patrol early on nights after nightmare akuma, too, because if sleeping has been difficult already it's always that much harder after fighting anyone like Sandboy and they might as well just find an out-of-the-way roof to nap on from the start. They'll have to agree to a time and place for that- honestly, even if Chat Noir wasn't caught at all, _ Marinette _ thinks she might need the next few nights for this one.

She still has to figure out what it is she's either late for or missing entirely right now. She has a lot of new information about her friends now that she didn't particularly want and now has to consider anyway, and they have equally important and previously private details about _ her_, but right now Marinette can only look forward to spending some time with Luka and Adrien that _ doesn't _ involve running for their lives. 

If she's lucky enough (and she's so frequently lucky) and if she's stubborn enough (and she's always stubborn) she's going to be spending a lot more time with both of them. 

She can't wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have actually had to be physically dragged off a boat in a storm, i was having so much fun, but it can definitely be frightening 
> 
> (my relatives should _probably_ have discouraged the way i kept climbing as far out onto the bow as possible and clinging to the boat, but they absolutely did not)
> 
> also, re: what does luka know: i wanted to leave that up to interpretation, haha. but there are definitely deliberate hints that hes figured _something_ out.

**Author's Note:**

> i have had very, very few nightmares in my life but i _very much_ lit that doll aflame and then quit having that nightmare as a kid 
> 
> (the doll was originally a cool bug that i was chasing and it TRICKED ME. my friends are still making fun of me for this one). 
> 
> <s>...also cat sent me and another friend ahead with the doll she bought at a flea market once and directions on how to break into her house. she found that doll at the top of the stairs with a steak knife while the two of us hid with all the cats and giggled a lot. </s>


End file.
